Tuesday, May 04, 2010

World Cup Anthems - WTF? - How Many are There?

OK this is a bit of a shock, and I agree it is rather awful. I don't like the way Shakira says Africa (vowels are pronounced too precisely for most dialects of English I know), though at least the guitar work sounds South African.

So I am mostly confused because we keep hearing in Canada that K'Naan's "Waving Flags" is the World Cup anthem, though I did notice one report suggesting that maybe it was just Coca-Cola's choice.

And look! It sounds like a soccer anthem; I grant that the lyrics are still inane.
Thank you CBC!
K'Naan's slightly inane song is the anthem of the World Cup trophy tour. Shakira's inane song is of the actual world cup. (I plan not to capitalize it any more now that it has sunk into olympic commercial exploitation territory.)
Damn! I was so looking forward to hearing 100,000 Africans singing Wavin' Flag; they will have a lot more trouble with Shakira's song, I figure, much as I like her. And it won't sound half so good.
So Wavin' Flag gets sung in airports and city halls as the trophy does its tour (it just came through Toronto and I could see no reason to check out the ceremony). And Waka Waka (??) wil be what we hear from the stadiums.
Soccer fans - you can fix this. Those commercial clowns who hand out these little trophies (and I would expect with some consideration) can be undermined.
Everyone going to the world cup this summer - sing Wavin' Flag. (I love Shakira but wow not that song, as a soccer anthem.)